Pelosi and the Pope

TIM DRAKE

VATICAN — Pope Benedict XVI had a clear message to one of the most powerful Catholics in the United States government: defend and protect human life from conception to death.

It was an extraordinary exchange — followed by an extraordinary public announcement — at the Vatican Feb. 18. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, in the midst of a six-day visit to Italy, had a 15-minute meeting with Benedict.

“His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church’s consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development,” said a Holy See Press Office statement issued immediately following the meeting.